


Treasure

by zvi



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, Purim Treat-a-thon 2009, character vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-09
Updated: 2009-03-09
Packaged: 2017-10-02 06:25:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zvi/pseuds/zvi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's clear what the most important thing to her is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bessemerprocess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/gifts).



> Written for the 2009 [Purim Treat-a-thon](http://purimgifts.livejournal.com/).

She's got one thousand dollars in her underwear drawer. Twenty thousand and identity papers that match the name on the lease in a wallsafe which, Parker assures her, would take a talented apprentice at least five minutes to open.

Her coffeetable has a photoalbum labeled Around the World in Eighty Days. It is a map of the gems, artwork, and precious metals she has cached throughout Europe and in several North and South American cities. The deeds to her real estate holdings are kept on those premises. Her liquid capital is left in banks—not because she thinks banks are secure, but because a careful arrangement of relatively small accounts and unconnected identities has left all of her cash fully insured.

There is another safe, one which Parker recommended but did not install. Instead of a hinged painting, it is hidden by the firmly attached headboard of her mahogany four poster bed. In this safe, which is temperature and humidity-controlled by a system on a separate backup generator from the rest of her condominium, are three archival-quality film reels.

The longest reel is labeled "Triumphs" and consists of breathless news reports in a variety of languages detailing the theft or disappearance of a large number of priceless works of art. The most recent edit is the removal of a ten-minute documentary segment on Vatican art; she only keeps trophies for thefts that remain unattributed.

The oldest reel is labeled "Clips" and is duplicated on a DVD in the hapless offices of a little-known and powerless talent agency, the greatest client success of which involves a gifted but deformed physical comedienne who proved unexpectedly successful at shilling for malpractice attorneys. This talent agency is preparing to return the DVD to a PO Box in an industrial neighborhood in Chicago with an entirely insincere "It's not you, it's us," letter, breaking their contract of six weeks.

The third reel is unlabeled. A duplicate of its contents is on a Bluray disc in the entertainment center at the foot of her bed. The entertainment center was designed, but not installed, by Alec Hardison, for the sole purpose of watching this DVD.

She watches this DVD when she is not cast in a part, when Nate rejects her advances, when a mark slips the trap, when she is unconvinced of her personal talents. She knows full well that she is a terrible actress on stage and screen. The difficulty is not, as those who do not know her well may sometimes assume, that she can only dissemble for nefarious purposes. Rather, she is a chameleon, an actress who depends so fully on immediate audience feedback that her Oscar caliber work is made only when performing for an audience of one. A situation with multiple observers whom it is equally crucial to accomodate, or no observers who must believe in her conceits but only those who are concerned with her technical abilities, are unworkable for her.

The fifteen minutes of footage are cut together from four unremarkable European soft porn films made in the late 1980's. The scenes here omit any sexual acts and include little nudity. But they are those few instances where her co-star was her audience, and they are brilliant past all imagining.

She has accomplished many remarkable things in her life of crime, but these fifteen minutes are the evidence that she will one day leave it for one of which her mother can be proud.

She would have added her death scene as a nun if they had remembered to leave film in the damn cameras.


End file.
